Teilhard de Chardin: from the Absolute to Omega

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, Christianity in the English-speaking world, despite its enrichment by the critical implosion, was under siege by two opposite but convergent enemies, which C. S. Lewis chose to call North and South. North was cold, desiccated, scientific materialism, agnostic at best, atheistic at worst. South was warm, deliquescent, philosophic idealism, agnostic at best, pantheistic at worst. Between these two enemies there were many unexpected and subterranean links. Moreover, not only did they besiege Anglo-Christendom, but their contradictory qualities infected the besieged. Thus, under Cardinal Vaughan, the Catholic Church in England, losing Manning’s fire while keeping his frost, entered a little ice age which, while it might preserve the essentials of the critical implosion, froze their operation. Simultaneously, under Archbishop Davidson, the Church of England, losing Tait’s confidence while keeping his caution, entered an everglade where, while islands of commitment survived, landmarks were lost and anything went.